History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 13

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438

USA > Pennsylvania > Monroe County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 13
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 13
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 13

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requiring those intruders forthwith to remove from the lands. He also appointed James Burd and Thomas McKee, Esqs., justices of the peace, and gave them written instructions to pro- ceed to Wyoming,and having convened the people settled there, publicly to read the following pro- clamation ; to use the utmost endeavors, by expostulations and arguments, to prevail on them to relinquish their scheme of settling the lands there, and to depart peaceably without delay ; otherwise to cause some of its principals to be apprehended and carried to the " Goal " at Lancaster :

"By the Hon. James Hamilton, Esquire, Lieuten- ant-Governor and Commander in Chief of the Prov- ince of Pennsylvania and the Counties of Newcastle, Kent and Sussex upon Delaware.

" A Proclamation

" Whereas persons, the natural born subjects of His Majesty, belonging to some of the Neighbor- ing Colonies have, without any License or Grant from the Honorable the Proprietaries of this Prov- ince, made several Attempts in Bodies to settle upon a large Tract of Land within the limits of this Province not yet purchased from the Indians, lying at and between Wyoming on the Susquehanna and Cushietunck on the Delaware and in the upper part of Northampton County and have called the inhabit- ants to their aid in holding the lands ; And whereas the Delawares, and other tribes of Indians and also the Six Nation Indians have repeatedly made complaints and Remonstrances to me against the said Practices and Attempts, and insisted that the Intruders be removed by the Government to which they belonged, or by mc, and declared that otherwise they would remove them by Force, and do themselves Justice, but de- sired that the Intruders might be previously ac- quainted therewith ; And Whereas Notwithstanding I have already issued two Proclamations to apprise the said Intruders of their Danger and to forbid their settling on the said lands and strictly enjoining those who had already settled to depart ; yet I have lately received Information and fresh Complaints from the Indians that divers persons do still persist in their said Design and are now actually scttling on the said Land about Wyoming and Cushietunck. Wherefore, In order to procure the Peace and Friendship be- tween us and the Indians and to prevent the carrying in execution of such threats, from which I fear the Indians cannot longer be restrained, as also again to warn any of the inhabitants of this Province against aiding the Intruders, I have judged it proper, before using Force, by and with the advice of Council, to is- sue this Third Proclamation, requiring in His Majes- ty's name all persons already settled on the Lands to depart. And do hereby forbid all his Majesty's Subjects

1 Penn. Archives, Vol. IV. p. 83-84.

SETTLEMENTS ON THE UPPER DELAWARE.

to intrude upon any Lands within the Province not yet purchased of the Indians. And hereby strictly charg- ing all Sheriffs, Magistrates, Peace officers and other people within this province to exert themselves to bring to Justice and condign Punishment all Offend- crs in the Premises.

"Given under my hand . at Philadelphia, the second day of Junc, 1763.

" JAMES HAMILTON.

" By His Honor's Command,

" JOSEPH SHIPPEN, JR., " Secretary.

" God save the King." 1

This proclamation, like those directed exelu- sively against Cushutunk, availed nothing. The few Connecticut people at Wyoming unfortu- nately did not heed it. The Indians were sullen. A storm was portending, and upon the 15th of October (1763) it suddenly broke. The Indians, without the slightest warning, raised the war-whoop and fell with fury upon the defenee- less village. About twenty men were killed and sealped, and those who eseaped a horrible death-men, women and children-fled to the mountains, and after long wandering in the wilderness, destitute of food and almost desti- tute of elothing, found their way to older settle- ments and eventually to their Connectieut homes.2 This was the first massaere of Wyom- ing-not a part of the Pennamite War, but an example of Indian feroeity in the resentment of real or imagined wrong. The government sent soldiers to the scene of the massaere, but they found the valley deserted by the Indians.

After this terrible experience no attempt was made by the Susquehanna Company to settle Wyoming until 1769. In the meantime the proprietary government had fortified itself witlı a deed from the Six Nations and other Indians of all that portion of the province, not before bought, which lay in the limits of the Conneeti- eut claim. This was proeured at the treaty held in 1768.3 And now commenced in earnest the strife, foot to foot and hand to hand, for the oeeupation of the lovely valley of Wyoming and, praetieally, for the possession of that part of Pennsylvania between the forty-first and

forty-seeond parallels of latitude -- the struggle known in history as " the Pennamite War." To give an adequate history of this long, event- ful eontest between the Pennsylvania and Con- neetieut immigrants would alone require a volume, and, for that reason and the faet that the leading events of the war oeeurred on terri- tory of which it is not our provinee to treat in this work, we attempt only such a brief analysis of important general movements as is necessary to a proper understanding of local events which come within the field which is our subjeet.

Each party, at the opening of the year 1769, was pretty well prepared to assert and defend its elaims. There had been aetion upon each side something like that of two armies in the field as they prepare to meet for a stubborn eam- paign. Of the Susquehanna Company's party which determined to effeet the planting of a colony at Wyoming, Captain Zebulon Butler, a hero of the Freneli and Indian War, was by common consent regarded the leader, if not actually elothed with official power. There were a number of other strong chiaraeters among the Connectieut adventurers, and they were not wanting in friends and adherents within the limits of Pennsylvania.

In Smithfield, on the Delaware (now in Mon- roe County), as heretofore shown they had aetive sympathizers, and in several other localities they possessed strength which they eould and did rely upon. Miner says of Smithfield that "a number of its principal inhabitants united with the Connectieut people and entered heart and hand into their eause. The aid afforded by these Pennsylvania allies was of the utmost importance to the new colony. Benjamin Shoemaker, one of the Exeentive Committee, was from this settlement. John McDowell, a wealthy, high-toned Cameronian Scoteliman, became a true friend to the Yankees. With Highiland zeal he espoused their eause." With subsequent events in mind, he adds : "His granaries and purse were ever tendered to the sufferers with a ' Highland welcome.' "?4

" On the other hand " continues the author from whom we have just quoted, "the Pro-

1 Colonial Records, Vol. IX. pp. 27, 28.

2 Miner's " History of Wyoming", p. 54.

3 See Chapter III.

4 Miner's " History of Wyoming," p. 106.

WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

prietaries designated their leaders and marshal- ed their forces for the contest." Charles Stewart stands forth most conspicuously upon their side. With him were associated Captain Amos Ogden and John Jennings, high sheriff of Northampton County. These three consti- tuted the chief executive directory to conduct the proprietaries' affairs at Wyoming. To them a lease for a hundred acres of land at Wyoming had been issued, on condition that tlicy should establish an Indian trading-house upon it and defend the valley from encroach- ment. Other lands had been sold on the express condition that the buyers should defend them with arms, if necessary.

These lessees with several followers were first upon the ground, arriving there in January, 1769, and taking possession of the improve- ments from which the Connecticut settlers had been driven in 1763.

The forty persons selected by the Susque- hanna Company to found a colony arrived at Wyoming on the 8th of February, and found Stewart and his party in possession and well fortified in a block-house at the mouth of Mill Creek. The Connecticut party took possession of another piece of ground, built temporary huts for shelter, and adopted measures which cut the Pennsylvanians off from communication with Philadelphia or the surrounding country. Og- den and Stewart had been warned of the coming of the Yankees by one of the Van Campens,1 on the Delaware, and had sent to Philadelphia for reinforcements, leaving but ten men in their garrison. As several days elapsed and no aid came, he had recourse to stratagem to effect what he did not dare try by force. He accordingly sent a polite note to the Con- necticut men inviting some of their leaders to his house, under pretext of effecting an ami- cable negotiation concerning their respective titles, and when Isaac Tripp, Vine Elderkin and Benjamin Follett came over, Sheriff Jen- nings arrested them and took them to Easton, where they were thrown into jail. Their com- panions could have rescued them, but abstained from making any demonstration through fear

of endangering their safety. They were bailed, relcased and returned to Wyoming. The Yankees increased their settlement after this, and Sheriff Jennings learning of it, went up in March, accompanied by Lewis Gordon, Aaron Depui (of Smithfield) and Henry Hooker, three justices of the peace, and, after brcaking their way into a barricaded house, arrested the whole number present (about thirty), and marched them to Easton, as prisoners. They were bailcd and returned to Wyoming, where, in April, they were met by a company of two hundred men, sent out from Connecticut. Having now considerable strength, they built a fort, and near it twenty log houses pierced with loop-holes, and now they seemed secure against the Pennamites, and for a time they were. Sheriff Jennings, who, with Ogden, had been for a time absent from Wyoming, assembled as many men as they could induce to fol- low them and proceeded to Wyoming, where they arrived on May 24th ; but they found the cnemy too numerous and too well fortified to justify an attack upon them, and returned to Easton, whence Jennings sent the rather dis- couraging information to the Governor that he " did not believe it possible to raise a force in the county strong cnough to dispossess them, they being, by account, upwards of 300 able- bodied men." Two other and larger parties were subsequently sent out, to one of which, commanded by Sheriff Jennings, furnished with a large quantity of arms and provided with an' iron four-pound cannon, the Yankees finally capitulated, after Colonel Durkce, onc of their leaders, had been captured. Articles were drawil up, by which it was agreed that the greater number of the settlers should leave the country, a few remaining to harvest the crops, and in a few days over two hundred did depart for Connecticut. But they had no sooner left than a party, led by Ogden, began an indiscriminate plundering of the settlement. Cattle, sheep and swine, and property of all kinds, was taken possession of, carried to the Delaware and sold, and the men who had been left, seventeen in number, being thus deprived of the means of subsistence during the winter, were also com- pelled to return to their friends in New England.

1 Chapman, p. 75.

set the of

SETTLEMENTS ON THE UPPER DELAWARE.

Thus the scheme for settling Wyoming was again thwarted.

The Yankees, however, were not long inac- tive. In February, 1770, in connection with a number of people from Lancaster, they again appeared npon the ground, and they easily took possession of the fort, which had only a sınall garrison. Ogden remained at the place, with a number of his men, fortified in a block- house, which was besieged, and he was obliged to capitulate, and, with his followers, depart from Wyoming, after which his house was burnt in retaliation for the deeds he had committed the year before. This was in April, and in September following, after Governor Penn had issned a proclamation warning the Yankees to depart from Wyoming, Ogden led an armed party against his late victors, took several of them prisoners as they were engaged, unprotected, at their farm-work, and finally captured the fort, after killing a number of their garrison. Cap- tain Butler himself would have been bayoneted by the attacking party after they had gained an entranee had it not been for Captain Craig, who commanded a detachment of Ogden's men. During this siege the Wyoming men attempted to send messengers to Cushutunk, but the paths were watched by Ogden's seouts, who eaptured them.

From this time on until 1773, when a brief peace ensued, there was almost constant warfare at Wyoming, the parties rapidly alternating in ascendeney, sometimes one and sometimes the other being in possession.

A matter of interest in connection with these affairs, and which pertains more particularly to the territory which is our provinee in this work, was the appointment of Garret Brodhead and John Van Campen, of Smithfield, as jus- tices of the peace to aid in enforcing law at Wyoming in 1770. At a council held in Philadelphia on the 3d of Mareh in that year, the Hon. John Penn and others being present, we find that " The board, having con- sidered the present state of the intrusion and settlements made by the Connecticut people on the proprietary lands within this provinee, were of the opinion that if two prudent persons living in the north part of Northampton County were

immediately vested with the authority of magis- trates, it would greatly conduce to the preserva- tion of the peace and better execution of the orders of the Government from time to time, in defeating the measures of those people and checking the progress of their scheme of settle- ment on the lands at Wyoming and on the Delaware"-and the Governor accordingly ap- pointed the two men named.

The same John Van Canipen was engaged in guarding the roads east from Wyoming to cut off communication to or from New England in the summer of 1771. " He raised a company for that purpose, at the request of Lewis Gor- don, and wrote that " On Friday, the 9th of August, he went up along the Delaware towards Minisink, and by Saturday evening collected nineteen men, and marched them as far as his own house, and proceeded Sunday to Ramey's " (the vicinity of the Raymondskill, in Pike County). He sent a party of six men " to lay on Sheholey (Shohola Creek) road from Wioming to the Delaware, to prevent expresses going that way to New England."

The Smithfield or Stroudsburg settlements were frequently resorted to by the Wyoming people for the purpose of obtaining supplies, when, through the vicissitudes of warfare, they were despoiled of their crops, or prevented by Pennamite sieges from sowing or harvesting them. Thus in the month of February, 1773, the provisions at the Wilkes-Barre settlement were so nearly exhausted that five persons were selected to visit the friendly Scotchman, John McDowell, and other sympathizers in the region of Stroudsburg. In Miner's " Wyoming," John Carey, a lad of sixteen years, is mentioned as one of these five men, and we know from other sources that John Shaw (afterwards a settler within the present limits of Monroe County ) was also of the party. " The distance was fifty miles through the wilderness ; numerous streams, in- cluding the deep and rapid Lehigh, were to be crossed. Had these been frozen over, so as to be passable, their toils would have been sen- sibly mitigated, but the ice had formed on each side, many feet from the shore, leaving in the centre a deep-rushing flood. Stripping naked, tying their elothes and sacks on their heads

WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

and shoulders, cutting a way through the ice from the shore to the open stream, and from the stream to the opposite shore, they waded through, dressed themselves, and found warmth in marching rapidly. Arrived at the good old Scotchman's and sending in to make their crrand known, Mr. McDowell came out, rub- bing his hands in glee, bade them welcome, but in his Scotch dialect, broad as his benevolence, told them he had a house thronged with com- pany on the occasion of his daughter's wedding. Among the guests were magistrates and others,1 whose enmity was to be dreaded, if they knew a party of Yankees were within reach, but McDowell gave directions that they should warm themselves noiselessly at an out- house, then take shelter in the barn, where comfortable blankets were spread on the mow, a most royal supper sent them, with spirits and wine ; their sacks were filled with flour and their pockets with provisions. The four men took each an hundred pounds, young Carey seventy-five, and welcome was their return to their half-famished friends at Wilkes-Barre." 2 Similar visits, for a like purpose, were fre- quently made to McDowell's.

The peace which prevailed in 1773 was taken advantage of by the Connecticut people to per- fect their organization and prosccute their plans for possessing and holding jurisdiction over their claim. In that year the government of Connecticut, which, up to that time, had left the Susquehanna and Delaware Companies to manage their own affairs, decided to make its claims to all of the lands within the charter, west of the province of New York, and in a legal manner to support the same. Commis- sioners were appointed by the General Assem- bly of Connecticut to negotiate with the pro- prietaries of Pennsylvania and to make a final settlement of all boundaries and claims in dis- pute. Having received their full powers, these commissioners, in December, 1773, proceeded to Philadelphia, and opencd an amicable dis- cussion of all pending issues with Governor Penn and the Pennsylvania Council. They

returned, however, without accomplishing their mission, and immediately afterwards, in Janu- ary, 1774, the General Court of Connecticut, in pursuance of the policy of exerting the au- thority of the colony, passed an act by which the country extending from the River Delaware westward fifteen miles beyond Wyoming, and in extent north and south the whole width of the charter bounds, was erected as a county named Westmoreland, and annexed to Litch- field County, Conn.

Under the influence of the general peace which had ensued, and the resolute policy adopted by Connecticut in extending the au- thority of her jurisdiction over the territory in dispute, the immigration idea was greatly stim- ulated, and settlers began to throng into the lands of the Susquehanna and Delaware Com- panies.

The Wallenpaupack or "Lackawack " set- tlement was made in that year (1774) in what is now Palmyra township, Pike County, and as it was within the boundary of the territory which forms our subject, and also an important settlement, we shall give a detailed account of it.

First, however, it may not be amiss to state that the encouraging aspect of the affairs of Wyoming as early as 1772 had induced some individuals to locate, in the summer of that year, in the general region of the Lackawack settlement (northern Pike County). In proof of this not commonly known fact we find that there was laid before the Provincial Council, June 20, 1772, a letter from Charles Stewart, bearing date of Easton, June 17th, in which the writer acquainted that body with the substance of a message from Garret Brodhead to the effect that "a considerable number of Connecticut people were forming a Settlement on the Pro- prietaries' manors at Shoholy and Lechawaxin, and other places on the River Delaware, within Pennsylvania." The Governor, by the advice of the Council, directed thereupon that a pro- clamation be drawn and published, commanding the intruders, in His Majesty's name, to evacu- ate their illegal settlement.3

1 The Brodheads, Depuis and Van Campens were, in all probability, present on this festal occasion.

2 Miner's " History of Wyoming," p. 141.

3 Col. Ree., Vol. X., p. 50.

SETTLEMENTS ON THE UPPER DELAWARE.

The Wallenpaupack settlers, or at least the majority of those who composed the colony, arrived early in 1774. It is possible that a few may have been on the ground in 1772, at the time that Garrett Brodhead made mention of intrusion upon the Lackawaxen and Sho- hola. The men composing the settlement, so far as their names have been preserved, were Uriah Chapman, Esq., Captain Zebulon Par- rish, Captain Eliab Varnum, Nathaniel Gates, Zadok Killam, Ephraim Killam, Hezekiah Bingham, John Ansley, Jacob Kimble, Enos Woodward, Isaac Parrish, John Killam, Elijah Winters, John Pellet, Sr., John Pellet, Jr., Abel Kimble and Walter Kimble, all of whom returned to the locality after the War of the Revolution, and the following who did not return, some of whom were killed, viz. : Joshua Varnum, Doetor Amos Parks, Silas Parks, David Gates, Jonathan Haskell, William Pcl- let, Charles Forsythe, Roger Clark, - Strong, James Dye, Nathaniel Washburne, Joseph Washburne, - Fry, James Hallet, Jasper Edwards and Reuben Jones.

As if in designed and marked defiance of the proprietaries, this body of men selected for their settlement the Wallenpaupaek Manor, which had been surveyed October 14, 1751, upon a warrant dated November 25, 1748, "for the use of the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania."1 This was a tract of twelve thousand five- hundred acres situated almost entirely in what is now Palmyra township, Pike County, though a portion of it is on the north side of the stream, in what is Paupack township, Wayne County. The original settlement was wholly upon the south side of the strcam. The location had been favorably regarded as early as 1762, when the first settlers were on their way to Wyoming. They followed the old Indian path from Cashu- tank to the Wallenpanpack and found near the

lower part of the manor an Indian clearing and farther up the creek the ruins of a cabin, in which the Carter family had lived for several years prior to the close of the French and Indian War, when they were murdered and the cabin burned. The main body of the Wyoming immigrants stopped here and encamped overnight. Pioneers were sent ahcad to ascertain and indicate the way from here to their proposed destination. They fol- lowed the Indian path westward and lit a great fire on the Summit of Cobb's Mountain to serve as a guiding mark for their comrades, and towards it they journeyed, cutting a road as they went, and being literally led on their way by " a column of fire by night and a pillar of smoke by day." 2

It is not improbable that the knowledge obtained at this time led to the settlement of Wallenpaupack. The little colony was within the limits of the Delaware Company's purchase and was founded under the authority of that company, though its communications and asso- ciations were always more with Wyoming than with its sister Delaware settlement at Cushu- tunk.

Almost immediately after their arrival farms were assigned to each settler and the work of planting and sowing was commenced. The lots were regularly surveyed and extended from the creek back on to the hill a mile in length, the width being graduated in accordance with the quantity and quality of the bottom-land. The settlement extended four miles and a half along the creek.

A fort was erected east of the linc of the pres- ent Sterling road, about opposite where the old Wyoming road branches from it, six miles southwest from Wilsonville. This was a stockade of hewed timber palings, inclosing about an acre of ground, in the centre of which was a block-honse built of squared logs and adjoining it upon the cast side a guard-house. The block-house was surmounted by a sentry-

! This manor was, on February 21, 1793, conveyed by John Penn the elder and John Penn the younger to HIon. James Wilson, who gave a mortgage for it to the vendors. This mortgage was foreclosed in 1804, and the land was purchased at sheriff's sale by Samuel Sitgreaves, of Easton, in trust for the Penn heirs. The settlers at that time residing on the manor bought the lands of Sitgreaves, who gave to them the first title that they possessed.

2 This road, which diverges from the Sterling road, run- ning parallel with the Wallenpaupack, was subsequently the main thoroughfare from the Paupack region and Mil- ford to Wilkesbarre, and is still used. It is said to have been very judiciously located.

WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

box, made bullet-proof, which commanded a view of a wide scope of cleared land iu all direc- tions. The fort was so constructed that a rifle- ball fired from the high ground on the cast into the fort could not strike the opposite side of the palings below the level of a man's head, and therefore the palings upon the east side must have been much higher than upon the other sides of the inclosure. When the Indians became hostile during the Revolution this primitive fort served a very useful purpose, for without its protection the iuhabitants must have all inevitably been massacred.1

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 13

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 1438

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438